I've read so many conflicting statements about female bettas that I thought I would ask, how territorial are females?. Does anyone keep female bettas in a community tank? I've got threadfin rainbowfish and honey gourami, so I always assumed they wouldn't work in my tank. However, female betta tanks apparently work for a lot of people, and if they aren't too territorial to cospecifics, I figured they'd probably be fine with most other fish as well.
Thanks!

Okiemavis, honey gouramis are more peaceful than most gourami species hence threadfins can work fine there. As for female bettas, it depends on individual personalities. I've mixed one in my community before. Unfortunately, she developed a habit of hunting down my rummy-nose tetras eventually but the rummies were still recovering from transport. She left the other fish alone provided they are not ill.

Yeah, I've already got the threadfins and the honey's together and they get on fine, I've never seen one look twice at the other. I love my honey's, they're so sweet- I picked them out because I wanted the friendliest gourami possible, and they've worked really great.

I was just worried that the female will pick on the gourami since they have such a quiet temperament. I was also worried she might nip at the threadfins.

I've got a friend who breeds them, I think I will try adding a very young female. He'll happily take her back if it doesn't work out, and perhaps raising her from a young age with the other fish will make her learn to leave them be.

I'd be more worried about the honey gouramis going after the betta. I have two male dwarf gouramis that occassionally get into a little tussle but never do any damage to one another. However, when I temporarily put my male crowntail betta in the tank while I did some major maintenance on his tank, the dwarfs teamed up and chased him relentlessly around the tank. I'm not sure if it'd be as bad with a female since the finnage isn't as flashy and honeys are much more peaceful than dwarfs, but I'd still keep a close eye on them.

I had a Honey with a Female Betta for about 2 weeks untill the Gourami passed away. I think he was old, but that isnt the problem here. They were perfectly fine together; only time I saw them flaring at each other (or the Gourami at the betta) was when I first introduced the Honey. Other than that, nothing.

As for the Female Betta being territorial against other fish, I have rarely seen anything. Sometimes just flaring and slowly swimming after Platies, but nothing big. She thinks she is a Platy sometimes, and she always comes up to say hi to me when I am observing the tank.

I've kept females in my community tank with platies, cories, and an angel. They always did great. It seems that after they've gone from a community tank to living on their own for a while, it's more difficult to introduce them back into a community. So starting with a young fish would probably be a good idea. The only fish that my bettas have not done well with was a sparkling gourami. This was after the bettas had been living on their own though, so that may have had something to do with it.

That's really great to hear, I'm very excited to add a little girl to my tank! I'm not too worried about the gourami harassing the betta, as I have two male gourami right now and they don't bother each other at all. The tank is 6 ft long, and I have plenty of plants, including water lettuce for them to wander around in. The three of them should be able to have plenty of their own space.